As the 2016 breeding season has some to a close, we are proud to announce that we are expecting 114 foals to hit the ground next year! This is Cat’s most successful breeding season since 2009! We want to thank our incredible clients, first, who continue to breed their elite mares to High Brow Cat and keep him on the forefront of the industry. We also want to extend gratitude to the four ICSI labs that we have worked with to achieve such great results as well as Weatherford Equine.

We look forward to welcoming this foals in 2017 AND breeding even more champions next year! See below some of this year’s High Brow Cat foals.

Click HERE to see the 2016 High Brow Cat foals that are currently available for purchase.

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The High Brow Cat team congratulates the following NCHA World Championship Finalists on their accomplishments this year.

$5,000 Novice-Non Pro Reserve World Champion CP Jesse Cat, by High Brow Cat and out of Jessies Starlight MS by Grays Starlight. Owned by Tommy and Susan Marvin of Barnsdall, Oklahoma, the stallion scored a total average of 439.5 and ended the year with earnings of $29,762 and lifetime earnings of $123,722. Ridden by Susan, the chestnut was also the 2015 AQHA Level 2 Cutting Reserve World Champion.

In third, was Clays Little Kit Cat, owned by Dawn C. and John Chapman of Chandler, Ariz. The gelding sired by High Brow Cat and out Clays Little Kit by Zack T Wood earned a year-end total of $27,489.

Clays Little Kit Cat returned to take third place, as well in the $5,000 Novice Division under the hand of Mike Wood of Scottsdale, Arizona. Wood and Clays Little Kit Cat had an outstanding World Finals, scoring the highest overall cumulative score of 442.5 to earn a total of $3,712 at the World Championships, bringing their year-end total to $38,378.

High Brow Cat also offers its congratulations to good friend Joe Howard Williamson of Weatherford, Texas, taking his fourth Non Pro World Championship aboard Sweet Little Cats, owned by his daughter Denver Barnett. Though Williamson rode a total of five horses, Sweet Little Cats, by Sweet Little CD and out of CD Olena, was his choice for the World Finals. “He’s got a world of eye appeal,” Williamson told Brett Hoffman of the Fort Worth Star Telegram. “This level of cutting here is as tough as it gets and for a six-year-old horse, he’s really exceptional.”

Williamson and Sweet Little Cats, who also won the NCHA Non Pro Mercuria World Series event at the All American Quarter Horse

ICSI is proving to be a sound breeding process for Colt Ventures and High Brow Cat.

Weatherford, Texas – Maintaining the breeding value of older mares and stallions had been a challenge, but that challenge might have met its match with the advent of Intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), a procedure used with the world’s leading performance horse stallion, High Brow Cat.

Already in use among humans for more than 20 years to address male infertility, ICSI is, in simple terms, the method of selecting a single sperm to be injected directly into an egg. The process in horses, however, is still relatively new, leaving mare owners with questions about how it works and its safety; questions that High Brow Cat owner Darren Blanton understands.

“The concerns many mare owners have are not unlike the concerns expressed when artificial insemination started eons ago,” he said. “Mare owners want to make sure their horses are going to remain healthy and that the process will not introduce infection or other issues. I want the same for my mares and in our experience, we’ve been able to have a number of successful births for the past two years. So, it’s exciting to me that as verification there are more than 100 mares in foal to High Brow Cat right now.”

Blanton points out that ICSI actually introduces a positive aspect to breeding that allows mare owners the opportunity to breed earlier, with the resulting foal being a more structurally and mentally mature animal at the beginning of training and later in competition. Furthermore, among many other benefits to breeding with ICSI first, mares do not have to be in heat or placed under artificial lighting for the procedure to work, which allows them to come in naturally on their own in the spring.

“In fact, Dr. Gabe Young at Weatherford Equine says most mares have their largest number of follicles while they are in the transitional phase of their cycle,” he explained. “But with ICSI we can harvest those oocyte during the transition phase, and utilize those eggs which may never even develop to a stage that will be ovulated and productive in a traditional breeding setting. We have also found that mares aspirated for ICSI during the transitional cycle are likely to be ready for traditional breeding with in a week of aspiration, hence may actually shorten time to breeding for beginning of season. “

Other benefits, Blanton said, include that immature aspirations require no hormones to be given to your mare and there is no exercise restriction with oocyte harvests so it won’t interfere with training programs or show schedules. Typically after breeding a mare to flush an embryo, only “light-moderate exercise” is recommended until the embryo is flushed out. And, finally, mares can be hauled in or checked at home leading up to the aspiration and the aspiration itself can be done as an out patient procedure- no spending the night to check for ovulation or fluid the way a standard insemination would need to be.

After aspiration, or the collection of an oocyte (horse egg) from a follicle on the mare’s ovary, a microscope with micromanipulators is used to mechanically inject one sperm cell into the egg. After 8 days in the incubator, the embryo is transferred into the uterus of a recipient mare (surrogate mother) that will give birth 11 months later. The application of this cutting edge technology has produced foals from outstanding genetic individuals that otherwise would have been lost to the gene pool.

Texas A&M and Colorado State University are the primary centers of research in equine reproduction. Due to the investment in laboratory facilities, equipment and supplies, which can easily reach several hundred thousand dollars, in addition to the learning curve of several years, there are only a couple of private veterinary hospitals offering these services. Dr. Rob Foss at Equine Medical Center in Columbia, Missouri and Dr. Rick Beck at IN Foal, Inc. in Hemet, California are the two hospitals that have produced several live foals by this procedure.

“Clearly with his sire record, breeding to High Brow Cat is an excellent investment for mare owners,” said Blanton. “But even more than that is the opportunity to continue to provide an incredible genetic structure that produces incredibly talented and trainable horses.”

To learn more about the ICSI process and watch videos, or more about High Brow Cat, visit his website at highbrowcat.com or contact breeding manager Christina Kirby at 940.748.2610.

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Congrats to Staci McDavid on a great show at the Bonanza! She picked up a win in the Unlimited Amateur on Desires Chrome Cat, by High Brow Cat!

Here's another Midway Farms & Forage #SelectWay update from the #BonanzaCutting where Stacie McDavid just clinched the 4YO Unlimited Amateur finals with a 221 on Desires Chromed Cat. Thanks again to S. Sylvester Photography for the great action shot. ... See more